Cumin

Cumin, or jeera in Hindi and Bengali (as I was brought up to refer to it), is the archetypal Indian spice. Although mostly used in combination with other spices, cumin is an essential ingredient in so many recipes.

Cumin plants in flower	Cumin flowers and fruits	Cumin fruits (often incorrectly named "cumin seeds"	Ground cumin

Species:	Cuminum cyminum.
Origin:	Western Asia.
Source:	The main production territories today are India, Iran, Indonesia, China and the countries of the Southern Mediterranean.
Used Part:	Fruits (frequently incorrectly called "seeds").
Family:	Apiaceae (parsley family).
Effect:	Strongly aromatic, with a characteristic aroma that is subtly modified by frying or dry roasting.
Etymology:	The English name "cumin"originates from Latin cuminum, loaned from Greek kyminon. There may also be a Semitic origin: cf. Old Hebrew kammōn and Egyptian kamnini. Modern Semitic tongues often show similar forms, e.g. Arabic kamoun, Hebrew kamoon and Amharic kemun. Similar names are common in many European languages, e.g. Portuguese cominho, Lithuanian kuminai, Basque komino and Greek kimino, as well as Chinese ku-ming.
	Confusingly, many languages have similar names signifying not cuminbut caraway, e.g. Russian tmin, Ukrainian kmyn and Bulgarian kim. Confusion between cuminand carawayhas a long record in German-speaking countries, where carawayis known as kümmel. The German for cumin, however, kreuzkümmel "cross-caraway" indicates that German cooks see cuminas an exotic variety of carawaywhich appears like a cross when viewed along the stalk axis.
	In most countries of Northern and Eastern Europe, cuminis of little importance as a flavouring and consequently is seen as a foreign spice comparable to, but distinct from, the native spice caraway"foreign caraway". Cuminis often named as a foreign or oriental variety of caraway, e.g. Romanian chimion Turcesc "Eastern caraway", Slovenian orientalske kumin "oriental cumin" and Hungarian Egyiptomi kömény "Egyptian caraway". In countries where cuminis favoured, the same system works in the opposite direction, with carawaynamed "German cumin" or similar.
	Although cuminhas little use in Italian cuisine, it is named "Roman caraway" in many European languages: (Russian Rimskij tmin, Finnish Roomankumina and Czech Římský kmín). These names refer to the fact that cuminbecame known in Northern Europe as a result of Charlemagne's herb edicts which led to cuminbeing viewed as a "Mediterranean" or "Italian" type of the native caraway.
	In Sanskrit names of cuminappear related to the root jri signifying "cause decay" or "consume". The root jri may also mean "digest", which could refer to the digestive properties of cumin. Related words for cuminare today found from the Caucasus to Central Asia to South-East Asia, e.g. Georgian dzira, Azeri cirə, Kazakh zere, Farsi zireh, Urdu zirah, Hindi, Punjabi and Bengali jira, Tamil jiragam, Thai yeera and Chinese ziran. Sanskrit sughanda "cumin" (also used for other aromatics including marjoram, lime, zedoary, civet and lotus) means "well-smelling", indicating that cuminwas highly popular in Ancient India.
	In Chinese herbal medicine, cuminis commonly referred to as xiao hui xiang "little fennel", which is the opposite of fennelbeing named as "sweet cumin" in several South and South-East Asian tongues.
Uses:	Cuminis a popular spice all over the world, especially in Latin America, North Africa and Asia, and is generally referred to by the English term "cumin". Although a common spice at the time of the Roman Empire, cuminusage in Europe (apart from making curries) is now limited to flavouring cheese in the Netherlands and France.
	Cuminis one of the most typical Indian spices, especially in the South. The fruits are used whole, fried (frequently with onion) or dry-roasted before use. Lentils and other legumes are normally flavoured by cuminfried in ghee butter fat. The seeds form an important part of curry powder and of the Bengali spice mixture panch phoron and cuminis essential for the preparation of North Indian tandoori dishes. The fragrance of roasted cumin, typically in combination with common coriander, is characteristic of South Indian and Sri Lankan cuisine.
	Another important Indian spice mixture containing cumin is garam masala which means "hot mixture". Garam masala may contain almost every Indian spice, but the basic taste results from roasted cumin, coriander, black pepper and bay leaf ground together with smaller amounts of sweet spices (cinnamon, cloves, cardamom seeds and nutmeg). In the Imperial North Indian Mogul cuisine the mixture muglai garam masala is prepared predominantly of sweet-aromatic spices. This spice mixture is sometimes used for cooking, but more frequently sprinkled over the dishes before serving.
	In South India, a popular spice mixture called sambar podi "sambar powder" is prepared to flavour thin lentil curry saambaar, traditionally served with dosai (pancake-like bread made from rice flour), or iddli (steamed dumplings of fermented rice and bean dough). The base component of sambaar podi is urad dhal (lentils dry-roasted or toasted until they lose their raw flavour). These are mixed with roast spices (cumin, coriander, fenugreek, black pepper, mustard seeds, chillies and asafoetida. The powder is added, together with fresh curry leaves, to boiling curries. Similar spice mixtures are also much in use among the descendants of South Indian immigrants in Malaysia or Singapore.
	Black cumin is the fruit of a related plant that grows wild in Iran and in Kashmir. It is sometimes preferred to normal cuminfor North Indian meat kormas. Cuminis also used in India to flavour lassi (yoghurt drinks).
	Cuminis very popular in Western to Central Asia. Spice mixtures from this region featuring cumin are Yemeni zhoug and Saudi-Arabian baharat. Cumin is also typical of the tagines (meat stews) of Arab-influenced North Africa.
	In South-Eastern and Eastern Asia, cuminis less valued but used occasionally, but it is very important for Burmese cooking and plays a role in the cooking of Thailand and Indonesia.
	In Central and South American cooking, cuminis an important spice that appears in Mexican and similar spice mixtures.